Anderson Cooper Slams and Belittles Trump Supporter On-Air and It's About Damn Time

Last night on his show on CNN, Anderson Cooper was "rude" to a talk radio host and supporter of Donald Trump. I'm not the one calling him rude; it's he himself who used that word later in a tweet in which he apologized for the line and tone of questioning he employed in going after Young Republican douchebag archetype Andy Dean.

Advertisement

Cooper was holding Dean's feet to the fire in response to comments Trump made earlier in the day when a man at one of his campaign rallies stood up and ranted about President Obama being a Muslim and the threat posed by Muslims. Instead of correcting the lunatic, Trump took the same basic tack he did when supporters of his beat up a homeless man in Boston last month: he just kind of raised his eyebrows and said, "We're going to be looking at that." Dean tried to make the claim that Trump was talking about the potential presence of radical Islamic training camps preparing to strike the U.S., but Coop was having none of it.

“You may laugh it off, but there are potential reports of Muslim radicals,” Dean managed to get out before being interrupted by a quietly fed-up Cooper.

Advertisement

Advertisement

“Andy, I’ve spent more time overseas than you ever have in your little life, so don’t tell me about I’m laughing this stuff off,” he said.

Cooper then pushed hard, asking Dean whether his travels had ever taken him to the Muslim world.

“Not much in the Muslim world, because I don’t want to get killed,” he snapped.

Take a look for yourself.

Let's make something clear here: What Anderson Cooper did was 100% necessary. Part of the reason an unserious buffoon like Trump has been able to gain the kind of ground he has is that the political media have never bothered to really check him. We've complained about this I don't know how many times before, but we've now reached a point where the determination to provide phony objectivity and to proceed as if both sides of the political debate are offering opinions worth taking equally seriously has become frighteningly detrimental to the country. The media's unwillingness to honor their responsibility is a clear and present danger to the future of this nation and it's time for the people who make up the various news outlets to realize what's at stake here -- what any negligence on their part is now putting at risk.

The people in the political press need to call out this shit, correct the seemingly never-ending flow of mendacity and begin treating the candidates who don't deserve to be taken seriously as people who don't deserve to be taken seriously. There's far too much to lose if they don't. Cooper did the right thing last night. He has nothing to apologize for. In fact, more journalists should follow his lead. If the press simply reports reality instead of manufacturing balance, the truth will speak for itself.

He's the commander-in-chief of trolls, an angry toddler who uses Twitter to exact petty revenge on his enemies and who can send the United States into a tailspin in 140 characters. It's time to shut his primary mode of communication down for good.

Raising awareness is different from raising fears. That's important to keep in mind as you watch or read the mainstream media coverage of the growing Ebola crisis in Africa. What's also important to keep in mind: the mainstream media thrive on fear.

Pamela Anderson is trying to stop people donating to the ALS Association. The long time PETA supporter accused the organization of funding experiments that injected chemicals into monkey brains. It turns out that isn't true.